Founder Profile: Christie Chu | Litlab
Today we chat with Christie Chu, co-founder and Head of Learning at Litlab. She shares more about the company she helped found, as well as her advice on combatting imposter syndrome. This story has been lightly edited for clarity.
Who: Christie Chu
Location: Bay Area, CA
Company: Litlab
Stage: Pre-Seed
One-liner: Litlab boosts reading engagement and reading proficiency by giving teachers and students the power to generate engaging, personalized, and decodable content using AI.
Introduce yourself!
Hi All! I’m Christie, the Co-Founder and Head of Learning at Litlab. I’m a former educator and have a passion for education, with a keen interest in social emotional learning. Teaching to the “whole student” has always been very important to me, and whether I’m in the classroom or developing products and curricula, I’m always looking to find ways to implement more of this work.
Outside of work, I can usually be found either giving belly rubs to my dog Luna, petting stranger’s dogs, traveling, hiking, roadtripping, or tracking down a new delicious restaurant. I love experiencing new cultures, exploring new places, and most of all, eating new food.
Why did you start your company?
I started Litlab because while I was teaching I noticed how challenging it was to engage struggling readers. When struggling readers are reading below their peer group, it’s often challenging to find reading material that is just right for them — meaning developmentally appropriate and engaging. This creates major challenges in reading engagement, reading proficiency, and can have a negative impact on the student’s social emotional well-being and their self esteem. We created Litlab so that we can show every reader that learning is joyful and creative.
What’s your biggest piece of advice for other founders?
There will be times that you may feel like you do not know what you are doing; imposter syndrome is real. Celebrate the wins — however big or small, give yourself grace and remind yourself that founding a company requires you to exercise muscles that you may have never flexed before. Don’t forget to foster and grow the passion that caused you to start the founder’s journey to begin with, and have fun with it!
